"The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going"
-Ralph Waldo Emerson-
This quote is one of the many that I have collected through the years and I find it strategically place on my July calender where is seems to be crying out for further examination. I sometimes marvel at where I am today the future looks so much different then it did two short years ago. But I also often feel that two years has not brought me very close to that ever elusive confident, self assured, self employed person that I dream of becoming. I read somewhere that people tend to over estimate what they can accomplish in one year and underestimate what they can accomplish in 5 years. It is an idea that makes sense to me but it leaves me somewhat confused. If I am 2 years into this then where should I be and what should I feel?
Some days I feel like I am on my way to having multiple profit centers that bring in good income and that I enjoy. After all I do currently have two sources of income and honestly neither one of them seems like "WORK"
1) Waiting tables - While this is not self employment exactly there are aspects to it that are more independent than working in an office space for a supervisor or boss and ironically I enjoy the interaction with the guests and my fellow employees for the most part.
2) Ebay Sales - I have been selling items with a fair amount of consistencyy for over a year now and slowly increasing my sales.
3) I am full of ideas for other potential profit centers
That is how I feel on the good days. But then there are the days that are full of doubt. The days when I realize that I don't want to wait table for the rest of my life, when I question if my Ebay endeavors are anything more than dabbling, when all my potential ideas seem too hazy and undefined which renders them completely out of reach. Which brings me back to the quote at the top of this page. There must be people who know with great certainty where they are headed. those who picture with crystal clarity the path they will take. I am not one of those people. Those people who are true visionaries. But how many of us are? Surely there is relevance for the "rest of us" in Mr. Emerson's words. He put no time parameters on his statement. He does not say The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going next year. Next year for me is mostly just a fuzzy hope that I will be closer to my goal of true financial independence with multiple profit centers. Surely what matters is my efforts today and the clarity with which I approach the tasks at hand for the world can only make way for me, or anyone else for that matter, moment by moment. And from those moments we accumulate the hours and the days that make up our years and then we look back with a new perspective and see how the world has already made way for us time and time again and so we proceed with a hair more confidence than the day before.